Chicago postal workers threaten to stop delivering mail after multiple employees shot on the job

The postal workers union is threatening to stop deliveries in Chicago after multiple mail carriers were shot walking their routes in recent weeks.

A 24-year-old United States Postal Service mail was hospitalized after being shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Chicago's southside on 10 September.

The female victim, who police said wasn't the intended target, is the second mail carrier shot and wounded while working their route after a carrier was shot in Brighton Park, according to ABC Chicago.

At a vigil near the scene of the latest shooting, National Association of Letter Carriers president Mack Julion told CBS Chicago it is too dangerous for carriers to walk their routes if they feel unsafe.

"Any letter carrier who does not feel safe in any one of these communities then they are not to deliver mail and customers have to pick up their mail,” Mr Julion said. “We are not going to have another situation where the letter carrier is shot down.”

The USPS is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest from the shooting, which happened in Chicago's Burnside neighbourhood.

Mr Julion said a third letter carrier was shot with a paintball less than 24-hours after his colleague was shot in the same neighbourhood.

"That's a traumatic experience, especially when you had a coworker shot the day before," Mr Julion said "It's not funny, these are federal employees...our members are at work trying to do their job trying to support their families, trying to serve the community.

It comes 45 people were shot, and nine killed, in Chicago over the weekend, including a 16-year-old boy.

While that was down slightly on the 12 killed the previous weekend, shootings and murders are up 50 per cent compared to last year, according to Chicago Police Department statistics first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

There have been 544 murders in Chicago so far this year, compared to 364 during the same period in 2019. There have also been 2,220 shootings this year compared to 1,500 last year.